Category Archives: Journalism

As you all know by now, things have been pretty slow for me these past couple of weeks but I’ve been doing my best to keep busy. Wednesday though, things changed when I got an awesome email from my managing editor. She told me that she finally got the “okay” for two interviews for me. Now, I know that the remaining part of my summer will be beyond amazing.

I also discovered that my Melina Alvez interview was one of the most viewed articles this week on The Daily Quirk. That’s a pretty exciting feeling and it does make me feel like a pretty successful writer.

Now on to the interview information… Since I can’t tell you the exact name of my interviews until they go live on the site, I will give you some vague hints about whom they could be. My first interview is going to be with a reality TV star from ABC’s “Whodunnit?” They are one of the “deceased” contestants so it will be awesome to get that perspective since I’ve already talked with Melina, who is still on the show.

My second interview is the big news. This one I actually fan-girled over, and I know it’s going to be a very memorable experience. This big named star has been in several movies and been on Broadway, but they are most well known for their reoccurring role on the ABC Family show “Pretty Little Liars.” That interview is scheduled for Monday, and they only have allotted 30 minutes for us to speak. This means I really have to apply what I’ve learned with researching to chose only the best and most vital questions to be asked. I’m excited but nervous all at the same time.

Unlike my previous interviews with celebrities, this “Pretty Little Liar” actor (or actress) is the biggest interview I’ll do in my journalism career (well, so far I hope). I hope that before the end of the summer I’ll be able to share the identity of this mystery interview but I can’t make any promises.

If it ends up that this blog ends before I can reveal the identity, make sure you check out The Daily Quirk for the reveal! Since you know what show they’ve been in and you know who the author of the interview is (me!) it’ll be easy to figure it out once it’s on the homepage.

Well for now that is everything. Looking forward to telling you more about the interview, and perhaps some of the things I’ve learned that might be useful.

I had the amazing opportunity of assisting a reporter who covered the sentencing of Thomas Gore, a former campaign aide to current D.C. mayor Vincent Gray, last Friday. Gore was accused of committing campaign finance violations and destroying evidence, sentencing him to sixth months in jail along with another six months in home detention. Gore will also be required to be placed on supervised home detention for 36 months. In addition, Gore lied to the FBI when questioned in order to cover up corruption, including a $650,000 charge in illicit funds.

The sentencing took place at the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Federal Courthouse. The architecture is beautifully done and is in plain sight of the U.S. Capitol. Despite the unpleasant circumstances, I was thrilled about being able to attend the sentencing and witness the process first-hand. After the hour-long sentencing, the reporter I assisted, along with other reporters around the area, tried to interview Gore and his lawyer but they declined. Assuming both Gore and his lawyer had to exit the building at some point, reporters stood outside a side door waiting to ask them to be interviewed one last time.

The reporter I assisted with WTOP quickly wrote out a summary of the sentencing on his iPad and then recorded the summary via his iPhone. Within a matter of minutes, a story was written, recorded and sent to WTOP via email to be played on-air. It amazed me how quick and efficient technology is, allowing reporters to send in stories no matter where they are.

I haven’t written in over a week now. It’s not because I’ve been busy but because I haven’t had much to write about. I’ve written several volunteer articles but there’s nothing out of the ordinary. I do want to share an experience I had middle of last week though.

Before that though, let me just update you on what’s been going on in my world. San Diego Comic-Con closed last weekend so everyone at The Daily Quirk has been super busy writing as much as we can on all the footage we received. Every day there was a new Comic-Con article or video feature. It was so crazy, and I had never seen anything like it. I actually wrote an article on “Mortal Instruments” that comes out on August 21 and on “Divergent” that comes out in 2014. Both of these movies are book-to-movie adaptions, which is a common theme at this year’s Comic-Con.

Now onto that experience I mentioned earlier… Here is what happened. I get an email from my managing editor about writing a break story about “Once Upon A Time” actor David Anders announcing his return to the show (Anders play’s Dr. Whale/Dr. Frankenstein). She asks if I’ve ever watched the show, and I hadn’t at that point. I decided though, that the article could be written so long as I did my research.

Well, I write the article and I didn’t feel too confident about it and as it turns out I had every reason to feel nervous about submitting it. There was a lot wrong with it, particularly in my wording and of course my lack of knowledge. So with this I learned a very important lesson: sometimes it’s best to just say no.

I knew from the start I had no idea what the show was about, and there was a good chance I couldn’t just write my way through it. From that moment on I’ve made sure to carefully think over my volunteer opportunities to make sure it’s something that’s doable and easily researched. I have a soft spot for helping however I can, and this is my blessing, and flaw, at it’s finest.

What I learned is this: since I work for the company now I need to make sure I catch up on all the shows they cover. I don’t want to be caught in a position where I can’t give my best work. It not only wastes my time but more importantly it wastes the companies time. I have to take it slow, but I’ve already started watching “Once Upon A Time” and I have a fairly long list growing. I also learned sometimes it might be better to just say no. If I don’t know enough on a topic, don’t take it. Better safe than sorry, unless you know the research will truly pay off.

I thankfully had more luck last Friday when I got to break the news on “Arrested Development” coming back for a fifth season on Netflix. I still had some wording issues, but it went much better because, well, it got published! Well that’s it, hoping to finish this summer off strong with a few more posts before school starts back. Excited to get back to HPU, it’s been a long three months away from home.

It has been a few weeks filled with various tasks and assignments including a unique visit to the newsroom from HPU! Pam Haynes, along with a couple photographers and videographers, visited the newsroom early Tuesday morning to take photos and conduct an interview with me about my experience here at WTOP. They also interviewed Amanda Meadows, a fellow HPU alum who is the traffic reporter for ABC 7 News and reports from the WTOP newsroom. We were able to do an interview together and discuss what it has been like working with an HPU alum and the wonderful experience it has been.

Also this week, I had the amazing opportunity of attending the news conference regarding Operation iGuardian, a surge operation to identify and arrest abusers of online sexual exploitation as well as rescue their victims. I captured photos of John T. Morton, the Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, speaking at the conference located at the ICE headquarters in Washington, D.C.

I am overjoyed with the variety of opportunities I have been given so far as an intern both in the newsroom and out in the field. I cannot believe I only have two weeks left here and three weeks until I start my senior year. This summer sure has flown by!

Production is wrapping up on the August/September issue, and as we get closer to print, the entire magazine is becoming real. Today, I had the opportunity to work with the production manager, Rob, with the layout and finalizing of the magazine. First, I used InDesign to convert all of the (99% done) pages to PDFs, and then I printed out all 190 pages and assembled them into a book for the editor-in-chief to look at. It’s a really important step, because not only is it the first time that we see the issue in a form that’s close to the way it will look in print, but it also gives the editors a chance to catch mistakes and to make sure that everything looks good together. Additionally, we put all of the pages up on a wall in the office, in the order that they will appear in the magazine with ads included to get a sense of what everything looks like together. Then the changes started. We moved pages and ads around to make sure that everything flowed nicely, and that nothing was competing for attention. While we were doing this, I got a chance to talk to Rob a lot about production, ads, and the like. It was interesting because I haven’t learned anything about that stuff in school yet, so I got to see it all with completely new eyes. Needless to say, it was a very informative day for me!